Done it each year. My favorite race for sure. Wish I could go back. Have fun with the 36-16 gearing, bring some walking shoes on the climbs. Canen Hill tops out around 27% and the top of Hungry Hollow is around >20+ % and extremely loose & rocky. If it's wet, you'll be walking for sure. I had to walk it last year with a 34-25 on my cross bike.

with that gearing did you spin out on the flats. I run 32-18/16 on my mountain bike and my crossish bike is set up as previously stated.

I had full gearing on my bike with a compact 50/34 - 11/25. I wasn't running out on the flats, but was running out of gear on the descents! I think there was a few singlespeeders out there... But not many and if they were there I really didn't know what there gearing was.